United Arab Emirates + Green travel | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/unitedarabemirates+green
Indexen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2015Sun, 02 Aug 2015 22:31:10 GMT2015-08-02T22:31:10Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2015The Guardianhttp://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttp://www.theguardian.com
Shifting sands: the UAE goes green with a new island nature reservehttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/nov/15/uae-island-nature-reserve
The best-known islands in the Middle East are man-made, but now the notoriously ungreen UAE is edging towards eco tourism by opening an island nature reserve<p>The United Arab Emirates is not known for its eco credentials. Thanks to the booming cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the UAE's list of ethical and environmental crimes increases daily. Man-made islands are destroying the reefs and depleting nutrients from the sea. Petrol is 20p a litre, with no attempt to curb its use. Construction workers building the cities earn barely enough to survive. Barges dump mountains of rubbish offshore. Water, the Middle East's scarcest resource, is used with abandon to create golf courses and landscaped gardens.</p><p>So news of a nature reserve being developed in the UAE comes as a surprise. Sir Bani Yas, the largest of the UAE's Desert Islands which fan out across the Arabian Gulf, opened last month, backed by a huge advertising campaign. Two hours by car from Abu Dhabi, three from Dubai, it's already a hit with expats fleeing the city. </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/nov/15/uae-island-nature-reserve">Continue reading...</a>United Arab EmiratesGreen travelWildlife holidaysMiddle EastTravelUnited Arab EmiratesSat, 15 Nov 2008 00:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/nov/15/uae-island-nature-reservePRBye bye Dubai ... Sir Bani Yas is made for activities other than shopping. Photograph: Martin HarveyPRSir Bani Yas desert island, Abu Dhabi. Photograph: PRJill Starley-Grainger2008-11-15T00:01:00ZThe new gold rushhttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/sep/22/saturday.green1
You think glitzy Dubai is over the top? Wait till you see what other destinations have in store to attract high-spending tourists. Leo Hickman reports<p>Small is beautiful. This has been the prevailing mood in tourism over the past decade. We want boutique hotels, cosy B&amp;Bs, family-run restaurants serving local fare, city breaks, modest rental cottages, cycling holidays. We shun the sweeping all-you-can-eat hotel buffets, multinational hotel chains, giant cruise ships, carpets of sun loungers on the beach. We seek the isolated and unspoilt and we reject the over-developed and congested.</p><p>But there is growing evidence that the &quot;big is best&quot; model - typified by the skylines of Cancun, Benidorm and Las Vegas - is fast making a comeback. Across the world, major tourism developments are now planned or under construction that defy the fashion for modesty over brashness. Not since the 1970s have we seen such epic-scale tourism projects. </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/sep/22/saturday.green1">Continue reading...</a>TravelGreen travelUnited Arab EmiratesChicagoMoroccoSwitzerlandKenyaLibyaCambodiaDubaiUnited Arab EmiratesFri, 21 Sep 2007 23:00:21 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/sep/22/saturday.green1Snow business ... the village of Andermatt in Switzerland. Photograph: AlamyLeo Hickman2007-09-21T23:00:21Z